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On the ground: What the fans say

Tue, Jul 10, 2012, 01:00

AINE McMAHON

JOHN ROSS,Cavan

I was sober because I was driving, so I was very aware of what was going on. My friends and I went through three lines of security and were not stopped. The girls I was with all had bags and none of them was searched – you could have brought in anything.

There were a lot of people off their heads on drink and drugs or a mixture of both. There were a lot of scumbags at it who were out to cause trouble.

I was standing near a guy who got into a fight. They were kicking and hitting him and then he was knocked to the ground. I performed first aid on him and it was clear he was on drugs because his pulse was very weak. We looked for security to help us but they took a while to come. There were 40,000 people at the concert so the crowd was hard to control.

It was very rough at the front of the barrier with people pushing and shoving. The crowd calmed down when Swedish House Mafia came on. It was actually waiting between acts like the time between Snoop Dogg and Tinie Tempah that the crowd were going mad.

ÁINE FINLAY

Meath

It was a lot of hassle getting in, especially for girls. My friends and I all had our bags searched and you couldn’t bring any alcohol in. When people were searched and they had drink, it was taken off them.

The crowd was crazy at times. When Snoop Dogg came on it was absolute mayhem. There were bottles being thrown so we just stayed well back from the stage for the rest of it.

I did notice a lot of people who were on drugs or very drunk but I didn’t see much violence.

The concert started early in the day so if people were drunk at 4pm they were quite bad when the concert ended at 11pm. I couldn’t believe when I heard the next day that people were stabbed.

PATRICE HALLIGAN

Cavan

There was a huge fight between four lads who were kicking each other in the head.

Drug use among some people was open. I saw a group of guys openly snorting cocaine. They took out a big lump of it and were snorting lines of it off a key. I was just in shock.

When I was in the queue for the portaloos, there were girls behind me fighting with each other or trying to start on other girls, which was quite scary.

I saw a girl who was about 16 on her own.

She was off her face on something and had almost no clothes on.

I saw some guy coming over to her and he was possibly taking advantage of her because of the state she was in.

JASON SMITH

Cavan

I was very surprised when I heard about all the incidents because I had a great day at the show.

The security was tight. My friends and I were searched going in and had metal detectors scanned over us.

I saw little violence, to be honest. I spoke to plenty of random people and there was no hassle. There was a great atmosphere and it was just like any festival.

ANDREW FLYNN

Kildare

I came to Phoenix Park at about half past four. A load of people had arrived at the same time; this created a bottleneck so security had to push people through very quickly.

We were all searched but I’d say a good few people got through without being searched in the rush.

I didn’t experience any trouble and the majority of people I spoke to who were at the gig didn’t either. There obviously was some trouble but there’s always going to be an element of that when there is such a big crowd.